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Alternative to a big tank... ?


Ducksta

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So I was ready to pull the trigger on a large tank build a couple of weeks ago.
Then it rained.
If you saw the Fisherman thread, you would have seen that my man-cave took in about 13cm of water (through groundwater not leaks.)

So, I'm now not as keen to put 1) timber stand holding that much weight and 2) electrical in said stand in the room I no longer trust quite so much.
I mean, it is solid - on a nice underground slab. So weight is no issue. But a sodden timber stand might not want to hold a couple of tonne...

I am interested in the idea of a free standing / pre formed pond, or possibly making a large tank/pond with bricks and ply (water proofed inside and out) and a large viewing window.


Wondering if anyone has any experience with anything similar.
Things to look out for... Problems with evaporation and humidity in an open topped pond, etc.

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I haven't made a tank (yet) but being a boat builder I have made some pretty large cray fish live tanks 50 foot plus in length. Its alot of work.

Building a ply tank I'd still fiberglass for strength myself and alot of work.

If Your talking about putting in large volumes of water in a shed the best I saw was an above ground pool with some careful consideration for the filtration. Above ground pools are cheap and its just filtration to work out.

For windows, I couldn't see it being that hard to glue on the plastic around a frame holding perspex windows.

As far as tank stands are concerned, it all depends on the design. Personally myself I dont like timber stands as they tend to draw moisture from the feet up and over a long term you really begin to notice it.

I had a rack of 12 4*18*18's on a timber stand that was coach bolted together and it held the weight ok. Over the years you could see the feet were damp though.

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I've been checking out the UaruJoey videos. Looks fairly easy to knock up.
Chuck I hear what you're saying about fibreglassing. But I was thinking more like using the waterproofing paint and just using fibreglass strips as reinforcing.
Another option would be to get a full steel stand fabricated and stick with the tank.
The 'open' pond idea appeals because I could have a different view, and also use it to test swim and tune lures (hookless obviously... probably...)
Just weighing up options at the moment. There is probably a pretty good chance we wont see rain like that again inside the life of any tank anyway...

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My stingray pens are simply knocked up out of 12mm mdf and chipboard screws.

I have three center braces out of 80x30mm jarrah.

Two of the pens are 3.9m x 1.8m and other two are 2.8m x 1m.

I took them into a Fiberglas mob (GKS fiberglassing) and had them completely fiberglass wrapped inside and outside.

I had the inside finished with gel coat,,, and you can choose from many colors, I chose white..

They only cost me $600 each for labor and materials each for fiberglassing.

Mdf from bunnings is super cheap.

You can still cut windows and bead them out before fiberglassing,,, that way you can just silicone and push windows in.

For your windows,, very cheap is 15mm toughened pool fencing which comes in very appropriate standard sizes,,, also bunnings.

For your stand, also cheap, is reconstituted limestone blocks, simply stack to height required.

I used this stand method inside my house with a 2500 liter fish tank.

I also ran my direct stick timber flooring through out the house up the limestone blocks and encased them to give it a blended continuation look coming out of the floor.

For your lid, use twin wall polycarbonate which is fluted that insulates well and its super lite, I have these as lids on my heated outdoor 20000 liter Cichlid growout runways.

Moisture collects underneath and simply drops back down into pond.

Hope this sparks your brain.

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I've noticed the great build builds on MFK and other American sites,,,,, but I've noticed there's a lot of work to assemble all these components and very time consuming,

The strength in the structure it's self must be excellent with those builds, because they are using different options to water proof the inside, and the water proofing types are only just for water proofing with no strength being added to the project.

Fiberglass cloth wrap is absolutely amazing in strength and excellent durable longterm water proofing at same time.

You can slap up a box in any old way in no time,, then get it glassed and job done.

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Stop causing trouble.

:offtopic:

When are you getting a bigger tank (for Scouts fighting fish)?

I could get my own tank, or I could live vicariously through others. I've chosen the latter.

You're my Kimye.

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fibreglass tub if you don't want to muck around with building it yourself, much cheaper than a glass tank

Window can apparently also be incorporated in.

This ones approx 240x120x66cm

Otherwise aquasonic also have some big tubs with windows

I went through the same thing... Let me know if you have any questions.

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Hey Momo - couple of general questions.

Where and how much? (PM if you like) I've seen preformed plastic ponds but haven't seen anything like that.

Any details on how and where you set it up. Does it stand free or have you built supports to stop flex (to simulate it being buried)

Is it indoors? How much to you lose? Humidity issues?
Any fish launch out?

Honestly all info is appreciated.

One thing I cant gauge from most of the moster builds online and overseas is climate type questions... I know UaruJoey mentions issues with humidity and evaporation on a big 6x6x2 ray enclosure that he originally left open.

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Cost $770...

Il pm you where along with some seller info

I built the wooden stand just like you would for a heavy tank. It sits on a sheet of ply, no foam needed.

It stands free, min-zero flex, will be fine as long as on a flat surface. No support needed to stop flex.

It is indoors, covered with suntuf sunlite from Bunnings. No idea on evaporation, would be minimal with lids though.

Humidity will be case by case dependant on where you put it, mines in a non insulated garage, so not too much of an issue for me.

I keep stingrays, currently only half full, no launching issue for me.

Il share some photos of it setup when I'm home.

It's not setup perfectly to the way I want it, still work in progress, so abit messy, but hopefully it gives you some ideas.

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Setup covered with suntuf to keep it as warm as possible, tank is a prefilter tank, contains filter wool in the plastic tub, there's also 4x big blocks of marine pure, then sort of a settlement area for debris before overflowing into bio area.

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Bio area is just a tub from Bunnings, contains about 60l of bio media only. Marinepure spheres, bio home, and some eheim substrate pro. Also has my heaters in there so my rays don't get burnt.

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Without lids. Water levels low due to water change

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Some of my grow out Rays

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Nice rays mate, any of those come from Perth ? Not meaning to hijack,, just a quick question.

That's the twin wall poly carbonate I spoke of earlier as a insulative light weight lid.

Suntuf is the brand name, and a few other manufacturers make it also.

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Nice rays mate, any of those come from Perth ? Not meaning to hijack,, just a quick question.

That's the twin wall poly carbonate I spoke of earlier as a insulative light weight lid.

Suntuf is the brand name, and a few other manufacturers make it also.

All self bred except for two... Il send you a pm

Your inbox is full buccal

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Can't see the fish with lid, if you're taking all the lids off, you def do get some water on the floor even after letting as much as possible run off into the tub.

99% of the time, all I do if stack the lids on top of each other, I get zero mess by doing it that way.

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